Melons

Melons

Nothing is more addicting than fresh cantaloupe on a summer day. Tasting warm melon straight from the garden is an experience everyone should have. Before you know it you will have eaten the whole thing! Popular melons include Muskmelon, Crenshaw and Honeydews.

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How to Grow Melons

Hale's Best Jumbo cantaloupe is a distinguished heirloom variety known for its exceptional size and sweet, flavorful fruit. Developed in the early 20th century by Hale Brothers Seed Company in the United States, this variety has become a favorite among gardeners for its impressive attributes and reliable performance. The cantaloupe features a rough, netted orange rind and a vibrant, deep orange flesh that is both juicy and aromatic. Renowned for its rich, sweet flavor with a hint of muskiness, Hale's Best Jumbo is ideal for fresh eating and making refreshing summer desserts. The plants typically grow to a sprawling size, covering a large area with their vigorous vines, and they generally require about 80 to 90 days to mature. They produce large, round fruit that can weigh between 4 to 6 pounds each. The plants thrive in warm climates with full sun and well-drained soil, and they benefit from ample space to spread. With its outstanding flavor, substantial size, and ease of growth, Hale's Best Jumbo cantaloupe remains a cherished choice for both home gardeners and melon enthusiasts.

The Delicious 51 Melon produces heavy yields of early ripening, delicious fruits! This melon is a reliable producer of 2-3 lbs. fruits with heavy yields. This variety is known for its sugary flavor and aromatic smell. The juicy, perfectly sweet flesh is dark orange with creamy texture and a strong sugary flavor. Delicious 51 has thinner skin than other hybrids, but holds well for market and in storage. This variety has excellent resistance to powdery mildew and is well-adapted for northern growers. Harvest at full slip for best taste! Bred by Dr. Munger at Cornell University.

Ambrosia Hybrid Melon is a trusted hybrid that has been relied on for years! This melon is one of the most popular melons for home gardens due to it's luscious salmon-red flesh and juicy, tender, extra-sweet flavor that simply melts in the mouth! These melons have small seed cavities, saving the extra space for more delectable flesh! Ambrosia Hybrid is very prolific and reliable with great tolerance of Powdery Mildew.

Honey Rock is a great tasting, early maturing heirloom melon with good yields of quality fruit. This melon variety produces compact 3-4 lbs fruits that are early to mature in just 80 days! Honey Rock's flesh is a tender salmon-orange hue with a delicate sweet taste, no wonder it was an AAS winner for 1933! This small melon is a good size for an early melon.

The Hales Best Jumbo Melon is a local market and home grown favorite. This cantaloupe was developed by a Japanese market gardener in California and became widely popular because it combined excellent flavor with earliness. This beautiful oval melon has a deep green skin and golden netting with a very appealing salmon colored flesh. Hales Best Jumbo is an aromatic melon that is truly a sweet treat!

The Honeydew Green Flesh Melon is perfect for any summer picnic or activity. This melon is specially adapted to grow in hot, long-summer climates, no matter how hot your summers get! This mid-sized Honeydew Green Flesh boasts some of the sweetest flavor to be found in the honeydew family. This melon is an all-around superb performer, it belongs in your vegetable patch this season!

Planters Jumbo is a great tasting cantaloupe that has a firm rind, smooth heavy netting, and thick deep orange flesh. This melon is 7x6" diameter, 4-4.5 lb. and is Powdery and Downy Mildew resistant. Planters Jumbo grows on a vigorous vine does well in drought or high rainfall. This melon is perfect for both home or local market growing.

Edisto 47 is a large melon with a wonderfully sweet flavor! This variety is a popular salmon-fleshed melon that is mildly sweet and produces strong yields. Edisto 47 has a high sugar content and is a great disease resistant variety.

Avatar is a medium sized melon with firm, flavorful orange flesh. The exterior is light green color that turns to a yellow-tan when fully ripe. These melons are early maturing reach 7-9lbs.

One of the earliest Eastern Shipper varieties. Be the first to harvest melons for home eating or markets. Mature to 4-5lbs and have excellent, juicy flavor. Intermediate resistance to Fusarium wilt races 0–2 and powdery mildew.

Sugar Cube is a personal-size melon with explosive sweet flavor. Produces an abundance of uniform, heavily netted 2.5 lb. fruits the size of a grapefruit. Flesh has a dark-orange appearance that is crisp to the bite. Sugar Cube is highly disease resistant and provides an exceptionally long harvest window. Well-suited for northern and southern regions. High resistance to Fusarium wilt races 0–2, powdery mildew, and watermelon mosaic virus; intermediate resistance to papaya ringspot virus and zucchini yellow mosaic virus.

Take one bite and you will be convinced this is the most flavorful melon around! Sarah's Choice consistently wins taste tests here at Urban Farmer. Its flavor combined with its attractive oval fruits and ideal 3-lb. size, make it the best variety for retail sales and home growers. Bred by Dr. Brent Loy of the University of New Hampshire.

The Minnesota Midget is a great little melon for short growing seasons or container gardens! This variety produces an abundance of early ripening mini single serving melons that measure to be 4-6 inches across. This little melon has a deep orange flesh that is succulent, sweet, and delicious down to the rind! Minnesota Midget is the ultimate melon for short-season areas, and the compact plants are ideal for small space or container gardens!

The Crenshaw Melon is a large pear-shaped cantaloupe with a juicy flesh! These large melons have a wonderful sweet flavor! Crenshaw is definitely a family favorite that grows best in warm, dry climates. These melons are pear-shaped and have a green-yellow, salmon pink flesh.

Atlantis is an Eastern melon with a round-oval shape. It has excellent interior qualities, including firmness and consistently high sugar content for high consumer appeal. Atlantis can be used for home gardens or farm market variety. Excellent field performance

Sugar Rush is an outstanding melon choice for home gardeners, combining strong natural disease resistance with exceptionally sweet, richly flavored fruit. Vigorous, productive vines yield generous harvests of cantaloupes averaging around 4 pounds, each with a small seed cavity and deep orange, juicy flesh that reaches an impressive 15% Brix. In trials, this variety consistently stood out for its balance of sweetness, flavor, and satisfying size—larger than typical personal melons but still easy to handle. Ready to harvest in about 75 days, Sugar Rush delivers reliable performance and premium eating quality, making it a standout option for both backyard gardens and market growers. High disease resistance especially to Powdery Mildew (races 1,2) and Fusarium Wilt (races 0,1,2).

A Galia type melon with great resistance to powdery mildew resistance. Produces an abundance of 5-6lb. melons on vigorous vines. Thick, aromatic, sweet green flesh of excellent eating quality. Small seed pocket. Harvest at full slip, when the skin of the fruit is yellow.

Olympic Express is an early maturity melon that is good for mid season growing. This variety has great taste, excellent firmness and very good interior color.